Building a Culture of Empathy

[mariamma]

Originally Posted by IslandScout

I want to believe that the dogs are attracted to crying people more than casually talking people because they love us and feel concern for us, but another part of me admits it's possible that when people cry they emit certain chemicals and the dogs sense those chemicals and they don't necessarily associate the chemicals with distress but with who knows what state of being, that presents some kind of biological advantage to them.

I think I understand what you mean IslandScout. Those chemical would be stress hormones and oxytocin and other hormones and neurotransmitters. Humans can smell the oxytocin in tears and react to them. The study about this had people smelling tears on tissues and talking about the emotions they had from smelling them. I believe they were smelling things like water, saliva and sweat as well as tears.

What this study documented that was that dogs reacted to the emotion, not to the sounds or actions. So, yes, dogs can and do react to the chemicals emitted by others. Humans often pull back when they sense these chemicals or see the emotions. Dogs go to the people crying and empathize (share) with humans.